


And Never Brought to Mind

by katayla



Category: Lost
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:40:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katayla/pseuds/katayla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Locke and Desmond keep running into each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Never Brought to Mind

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of an AU.

They met on New Year's Eve in a bar.

Not on purpose and not in a particularly special bar or a even a particularly special town. Just one of those anonymous towns they'd both spent far too many post-island hours in.

Neither was surprised to see the other. They might have escaped the island physically, but neither felt like they'd truly escaped. The reminders weren't every day, but they were frequent enough. A smell. A turn of phrase. Something to remind them of what they'd shared back then.

Or they'd meet in a bar on New Year's Eve, John looking the same, Desmond with a few streaks of grey in his hair.

"Buy you a drink?" Desmond asked.

"If I can buy you one," Locke said, and gestured to the empty seat next to him.

"You ever see the others?" Desmond asked.

Locke shrugged. "Jack sometimes. But mostly you."

"Why do you think that is?"

"We're the believers, Desmond. We want the reminders."

Desmond shuddered. "I don't."

"Then maybe because we were always more connected to the island than anyone else." Locke took a long sip of his drink.

"You miss it, don't you?"

"Yes," Locke said. "And you don't."

Their conversations always came down to this. Desmond had been so eager to get off the island. So desperate to evade it. And now, so reluctant to feel its pull. And John, who had found everything on the island, welcoming every tug.

"And yet," Desmond said. "Here we both are. Spending December 31 together."

"The island moves in mysterious ways."

"I'm not going back," Desmond said. "Not ever."

"I don't think that's really up to us."

"Fate."

"Destiny. Whatever you choose to call it. We haven't broken free yet," Locke said. "If we had, we wouldn't see each other."

"Maybe we keep running into each other for another reason."

"And what would that be?"

But instead of answering, Desmond looked at his watch. "Five minutes."

"It's odd, don't you think?" Locke asked. "That five minutes should make such a difference. Should give us a fresh start."

"I could always use a fresh start."

"Couldn't we all? Maybe that's all the island was ever trying to teach us."

"Teach us? Or punish us?"

"That was always the question, wasn't it?"

"One minute."

And they sat in silence for the last 60 seconds of the year.

The other patrons of the bar counted down the time. " . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Happy New Year!"

And all around them, people hugged and cheered. And, still, they sat there in silence.

"Well," Locke said. "It's a new year. What are you going to do with it?"

"Whatever it is, it'll be of my choosing, not the island's." And Desmond slid off his chair and held out his hand.

Locke clasped it in his. "I'm sure we'll see other again."

Desmond smiled. "Maybe, next time, it can be at a time and place of our own choosing?"

"Taking fate into our own hands?"

"Something like that."

"In that case," Locke said. "Perhaps I will see you ever sooner this time."

"Perhaps."


End file.
